From BZ/dpa
More apartments and rooms for students are being built in Berlin: the state-owned company Berlinovo wants to complete 700 places by the end of the year.
A further 3,550 places are to follow in the next three years. This was announced by spokesman Ulrich Kaliner to the German Press Agency.
The student union also wants to expand its inventory: “A construction project in Aristotlelessteig with 176 new places is already planned, but we lack the funds to implement it,” said spokeswoman Jana Judisch.
According to current forecasts, the construction would cost 23 million euros. In order to keep the rents reasonable, a construction cost subsidy of at least nine million euros is necessary. The student union now hopes to benefit from the federal government’s “Young Living” housing support program, said Judisch.
The student union has a total of 9,200 places, none of which are currently vacant. “The only vacancies are due to ongoing renovation work,” said the spokeswoman. There are currently 4,763 applicants on the waiting list. Around 80 percent of the places are used by students from abroad.
Berlinovo has already created student housing in recent years; according to the spokesman, around 2,550 dormitory places have been built. The company wants to build a total of 6,800 places.
Student living has its price: in the Dauerwaldweg student residence in Westend, for example, furnished single rooms of ten to 25 square meters cost 347 to 422 euros. “Two to a maximum of 14 residents live together and share the communal kitchen and bathroom/toilet,” says the description.
Berlinovo’s new apartment building on Siemensstrasse in Oberschöneweide offers ten to 30 square meter single and multi-person apartments. The rent per room: 420 to 550 euros. However, the rooms also have their own kitchens and bathrooms.
In Berlin, only around five percent of students live in student halls of residence, which is significantly less than the national average, which is ten percent, the science administration announced last year. The quota related to the years 2018 to 2020. Around 200,000 students are enrolled at Berlin universities.